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Tuesday, April 21, 2015

Sorry for the lack of updates recently, I've been busy cleaning out my apartment to make room for more stuff and with several new computer games. I'd recommend Dungeon of the Endless to anyone who has a spare day and enjoys falling into rabbit holes.

That said I have had some recent hobby progress, notably my conversions of Sicarian Infiltrators to make them look more like IG-88 from Star Wars. My original idea was to use Imperial Guard Mortar Shells for the basis of the head, this was a terrible idea as they are way too small for it. Sometimes you need to actually have the models in hand to realize that an idea sucks.

But in the process of getting the mortar rounds out of my bitz box an ancient special weapons sprue from Necromunda fell out of the box (literally) before me and I had the perfect bit. Its the macehead to the power maul from the Redemptionists gang. After trimming down some spikes to make them into eye lenses and lopping off the handle it was ready to get mounted.

Tuesday, April 14, 2015

So I finally had the chance to crack open my two boxes of Sicarian Infiltrators and man is there a lot bits wise in this kit! The first thing which I decided to use it for was to upgrade my earlier Skitarii Hypaspists. I didn't wind up quite liking how that first attempt came out, so here is try number two which I mentioned yesterday.

Monday, April 13, 2015

Just a quick announcement, I have picked up two of these kits and I want to convert them so badly that I am considering ducking out from work early. Stupid work....

I'm planning to use the heads from the Ruststalkers and the Flachette pistols to revamp my Skitarii Hypaspists. I wasn't satisfied with how these guys looked before, they were too "good guy" esk in appearance. So here is a proof of concept for what I intend to do to fix that problem. I'm excited to make this work. Obviously the pistol needs to be upscaled into a rifle, but really that shouldn't be too hard at all.

Friday, April 10, 2015

Edit: I updated this with better pictures, that's the problem with posting from your phone.

Alright so over the last two months I have gotten more into x-wing, honestly I play it more than 40k at the moment, and I've gotten quite better at it. Last night was another local tournament and I came in Second. It had a disappointing turnout of 4 players, but on the plus side that meant I got to play against all the lists being flown.

Here is a quick run down of my list:

The basic strategy is to restrict my opponent's movement options through asteroid placement and then rush in and pop the proton rockets into the enemy's biggest ship to take it down fast. From that point the A-wings fly circles around people and do a lot of damage without taking return fire. Tycho can fly around on his own well enough without needing any help, while Kyle's and Jake's abilities are an obvious combo.

Calculation is a great choice for an economical attack boosting pilot skill. I highly recommend it for ships with 1 or 2 attack dice, as you will average 1 hit and 1 focus on two dice. Autothrusters are simply must have for A-wings, the automatic evade die gives you an average of 2 evades on three dice, add an evade token and you will reliably dodge at least 3 hits, which frustrates the hell out of a YT-1300. Push the limit is also a must I've found for A-wings, as they kick ass as long as they have an evade token and a focus token. It also helps guarantee that you will get into range 1 with a focus for your proton rockets as you can boost and then focus. Jake can even focus, boost/barrel roll, and target lock all in the same turn with PTL.

Kyle's build may seem weird. I've found that HWK-290s are terrible at avoiding enemy fighters with their bus like manyever dial, so I added the Autoblaster turret to turn him into a porcupine at short range. It also helps save up focus and is a cheap upgrade. Moldy crow is pretty obvious, but saboteur and expiramental interface was an odd choice. I planned to have the HWK fly behind the A-wings and thus be close to whatever they damaged as they flew past the previous turn. It did not work very well, mostly because Kyle couldnt get into position often enough. It did help kill a tie bomber though, so great combination just not for this ship.

One quick gripe about the HWK-290, it's the rebel's reconnaissance ship but it can't take a sensor upgrade. How does that make any sense?

Alright here is a quick rundown of what I fought from memory:

Round 1: Scum list

This opponent was new to his list and overconfident regarding its durability. The Viper ended up flying way off away from the fight and he mismanuevered (just because you are stressed does not always mean it's the best idea to do a green manyever). He also played very aggressively with the Aggressor putting it up right in front of my A-wings. Jake fly right up and bumped him, but then barrel rolled off with a focus token from Kyle. Both he and Tycho then pumped their proton rockets into the Aggressor killing it in one round. From that point the A-wings out flew his fighters and killed them, he tried everything but once either Jake or Tycho are on your tail they pretty much stay there.

So I won with no losses.

Round 2: Tie Bomber Squadron

This list was quite intimidating at range. My opponent deployed the pilot skill 2 pilot on one side and his other two ships opposite of it as a lure. His plan was to fly that bomber back to his 'backup' and torpedo me as I have chase, which would have worked fine in I was flying anything other than A-wings. On turn one Jake moved 9 forwards and was turned to face the rear of the fleeing bomber. That is almost 1.5 feet of total movement, he can do it by moving 5 straight, boosting to one side, and then barrel rolling the other way for extra forward movement.

Two turns later and Jake was at range one behind the bomber and killed it with his rockets.

Tycho was deployed as my own lure opposite of the defender and other bomber. They ran forwards to target lock him and shoot him at long range, but then he did a three bank and boost to get out of their range. From that point he turned and got behind the secon bomber (which did a K-turn). He and Kyle killed the bomber and my opponent conceded.

This was the only time that I got to use saboteur, and even then it was just because the Bomber had already taken a damage during it's K-turn from flying over an asteroid. So not a good enough expenditure of 5 points.

Another win with no losses, each of these games was over quite quickly as well.

Round 3: Stereotypical Han and Friends

This kind of list is always a challenge as Han I so hard to kill. I ended up losing it due mostly to misjudging my movement with the A-wings and so not getting shots most turns. Next time I face this sort of list I will just joust the falcon with both A-wings and put ten dunce into it with the rockets. Han is just too powerful if he lives long.

I also messed up with maneuvering the HWK-290 and wound of stranding him in a corner for a few rounds, lesson learned on how not to fly it.

So yeah overall it was a great tournament. I plan to use the same list in the next tournament in two weeks, the only change I intend will be to swap out experimental interface and saboteur on the HWK for a recon specialist and to swap out calculation on Tycho for Expert Handling or Daredevil for more movement shenanigans.

About Commissions:

I am currently taking commissions. If you have a project in mind shoot me an email at The.Autoforge@gmail.com and we will work out the details.

About: Word Bearer

I've been playing 40K since I was 7 back when you could buy the 2nd edition starter set at Toys'R'US. Over time I've collected and played nearly every army in the game, and along the way I got heavily into converting and sculpting my models, such that I haven't fielded an unconverted model in about 5 years.

Dabbled in a lot of other games, especialy Warhammer Fantasy and Battlefleet Gothic. Avid Deathwatch player always open to joining a group to purge the xenos in the name of the Emperor.